Life imitates art for actress Eliza Coupe in her upcoming indie "Shanghai Calling." The story focuses on a group of Americans who reboot their lives by starting over in China; Coupe has enjoyed her two consecutive roles playing biting blondes on TV — on "Scrubs" and now "Happy Endings" — but relocating to an exotic locale for the part of a sweet single mom gave the actress a powerful understanding of the expat appeal.

The pull of Shanghai notwithstanding, Coupe did return to the States, where we got the scoop on faking conversational Chinese, the dangers of playing too many a**holes, and more.

You didn't speak Chinese at all before filming "Shanghai Calling," right? But you speak quite a bit of it in the movie — and very convincingly! Did you actually learn any Chinese for the role, or did you memorize it phonetically? It's impressive, either way.

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